[Kevmeister]

(Original post by mr tim)
Looks like Stevie is off early. That's why Stuart didn't pick him as captain.

Didn't Pearce say he picked the captain two weeks ago?

(Original post by Pn94)
Has a fair bit. Wouldn't say 'loads'.

Thank you.

(Original post by Jim-Jam)
....

See above.

[Rainy]

(Original post by Pn94)
Straight down the tunnel = he's tweaked something. For ****'s sake.

Currently merging onto the M1, more likely. Saturday Night Fever's on Film4 later and the recorder's buggered.

[mr tim]

(Original post by Kevmeister)
Didn't Pearce say he picked the captain two weeks ago?

Maybe but he knew that Stevie probs would have had CC final [with chance of ET and pens, which it went to], followed by Arsenal match, with the internationals in between...

[mr tim]

Charlie Adam has also finished his night for Scotland as he comes off just before 2nd half.

[m:)ckel]

(Original post by So Instinct)
I don't get how they are trivializing it if they complained about it?

It's trivialising because screaming racism at something like this actually mocks the seriousness of the issue. As Rainy said, it's especially disappointing that the director of OBV - supposedly an organisation which works closely with black people - felt it was necessary to speak out like that. Perhaps he's trying to make a name for himself.

[*_*]

That ball in by Kuyt

[Pn94]

Ben Smith ‏ @bensmithTimes
Gerrard felt his hamstring. Will go back to Merseyside tonight, assessed by #LFC in morning. Almost certainly out of #AFC game

[Belle-x]

FFS. He needs to just sack England off asap

[ChrisWilliams]

So people still give a **** about England and whether Gerrard was their captain after seeing him get injured and missing the most important game of the season so far due to playing for them?

[lifeshard]

Gerrard is way off form at the minute anyway, if Lucas was fit i'd almost be relieved at this.
Did you watch him in the first half hour? I didn't look at any other player on the pitch and Gerrard lost posession a lot, first touch seemed off and took the option of long balls when there were better ways, which ended up as lost possession again. He also seemed to lose interest fairly quickly.

But now, I think this severely hinders our chances against Arsenal. So unlucky, Agger and Gerrard out in arguably the biggest game of the season of which our hopes of top four hinge. If I could be bothered to retrieve the facepalming emoticon, I would insert it here.

Suarez played the full 90 with Uruguay as well, ****s sake.

[Jim-Jam]

(Original post by lifeshard)
Gerrard is way off form at the minute anyway, if Lucas was fit i'd almost be relieved at this.
Did you watch him in the first half hour? I didn't look at any other player on the pitch and Gerrard lost posession a lot, first touch seemed off and took the option of long balls when there were better ways, which ended up as lost possession again. He also seemed to lose interest fairly quickly.

But now, I think this severely hinders our chances against Arsenal. So unlucky, Agger and Gerrard out in arguably the biggest game of the season of which our hopes of top four hinge. If I could be bothered to retrieve the facepalming emoticon, I would insert it here.

Suarez played the full 90 with Uruguay as well, ****s sake.

Yeah they seem to enjoy knackering Luis out at least once every couple of months.

Stupid about Gerrard. But tbh he had a tight hamstring a few weeks ago didn't he...

We need to beat Arsenal and I can't see us doing it at all.

[Pn94]

Believe Bellamy played the full 90 too.

(Original post by ChrisWilliams)
So people still give a **** about England and whether Gerrard was their captain after seeing him get injured and missing the most important game of the season so far due to playing for them?

Whilst he's still playing for England I want him as captain but ultimately I want him to **** them off after the Euros for our benefit.

No way should he have played today though, completely nonsensical.

[mr tim]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17215577

So Stevie was going to play for 45 mins then, still shouldn't have started.

[lifeshard]

(Original post by Jim-Jam)
Yeah they seem to enjoy knackering Luis out at least once every couple of months.

Stupid about Gerrard. But tbh he had a tight hamstring a few weeks ago didn't he...

We need to beat Arsenal and I can't see us doing it at all.

I don't either. Only bright spots in the team right now I think are Kuyt and Downing, who also looked lively in the friendly just now. Though, i'm jinxing it and Downing is probably now going to do a repeat of the Old Trafford performance (can you even use that word to refer to what he did?).

Suarez will be knackered. Gerrard out, our only midfielder who while still off form can play a blinder on his day, a blinder that has potential to be match winning and not almost match winning. Agger our best ball playing CB also out probably pushing our next best CB out of his best position. Johnson seems to be out as well, dimming some more of our attacking threat. Still no Lucas. I just can't see Adam, Henderson, Spearing midfield doing anything for us. Has Shelvey even gone on loan?

I don't know. I'm really scared about this. If only we'd won a couple more of the games we drew then this wouldn't have been of such massive importance.

I'm just hoping we have a good day really.

[Deshi]

Lol just watched the Reina advert. They can't be serious can they? Why are the BBC even reporting something as ridiculous as that

[Mr.Messy]

Mid-week international friendlies..
Stuart Pearce probably won't even be permanent manager so how would this help him for his Euro selection.

[The Baron]

We were told Spearing had "a tight hamstring" recently and he was about for around three weeks was he not?

[Deshi]

Gerrard should have never started. Absolute joke.

[L18]

****ing appaling decision to start Gerrard.

He'd played 120 minutes on ****ing sunday, and 48 hours later he's expected to play 45 minutes in a worthless friendly.

****ing ****ers.

[Zerforax]

I think we just play a 4-4-2, tell Spearing (or Henderson if he's unavaible) to sit deep with Adam and then Downing and Kuyt on the wings with Suarez and Carroll up front.

Play hoof ball to Carroll and hope Suarez gets on the end of it. Try to play on the counter by releasing Suarez. Use Carroll for set pieces. And just hope we have a jammy game and are solid defensively.

We can't play anything but a deep line with Carragher at the back. We should play with 3 in the middle but at the same time we need to try and expose Arsenal's difficulties with height.

Can't really see anything else working with players missing or having played 90 mins with internationals.